NASA: Spirit rover stays silent, but Opportunity remains

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In 2003, NASA did the unthinkable by not only launching one, but two rovers to explore the planet Mars. The rovers, named Spirit and Opportunity, beat the odds when they both landed successfully on the red planet. The rovers had been built to complete a 90-Martian-day mission to explore the planet’s surface. Since that time the rovers have continued to surprise engineers with their longevity. The mission for both had been extended multiple times since landing over seven years ago.

Opportunity and Spirit were designed to drive a distance of just under half a mile as part of their primary mission. As of this month, Opportunity has traveled over 16 miles while Spirit eventually got stuck in the Martian sand forcing NASA to announce on January 26, 2010 that the rover’s mission was over, but that it would be used as a stationary research platform. Unfortunately for Spirit, it seems that may have been the beginning of the end. In March 2010, the rover went into hibernation and hasn’t communicated with NASA since.

The team at NASA in charge of Spirit had hoped the rover would wake up when it reached peak solar energy production on or around March 10th. At this point, the team is attempting a number of methods in hopes of regaining communications with Spirit. These methods cover the possibility that the rover’s receiver has degraded or that its clock has drifted since March of last year. Considering that no response has been received from the rover in over a year many believe it may be time to write the obituary for Spirit, but it’s clear that the mission team isn’t ready to give up just yet.

In contrast, Opportunity is still mobile and just recently completed stereo imaging at Santa Maria crater. Next stop for Opportunity is the Endeavour crater which is 4 miles away.